Hugh Cockrell. "An Association is the very thing for a town like
this. You all know how it operates. It don't conflict with the work
of the churches in the least. It furnishes parlor, sitting room,
libraries, gymnasium, bath rooms, and all such things, at a very nominal
cost to young men. As I have said in our meetings before, I think we
ought to write to the State Secretary and get him to come here and
look over the situation."
"That's all right, Brother Cockrell," said the big Brother Howell,
rising to his feet and pushing his hands deep into his pockets; for
the big minister was lots more of a man than he was a preacher, and
put his hands into his pockets when he chose, without any closely
buttoned, clerical cut coat to prevent him. "That's all right about
the Young Men's Christian Association. It's a good thing; a splendid
thing; and I'd like to see one started here in Boyd City, but a dozen
Associations won't meet the needs of this place. Those who could afford
to pay the fee would enjoy the parlors and baths; those who could read
might enjoy the books; and those who had worked in the mines digging
coal all day, might exercise in the gymnasium, but what about the
hundreds of young men who can't afford the fees, and don't want a
parlor so much as a bite to eat, or a gymnasium so much as a bed, or
a reading room so much as a job of work? We need something in this
town that will reach out for the ignorant, fallen, hard-up, debauched,
degraded men and women.
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